Chapter 8 - Bahia Gifts
We got back to town while the sun was still well above the horizon and followed Amelia through town. I had expected her to take us to the building where they had the dinner for Marylyn and Rachel's retirement but she kept climbing the hill and we found a gigantic concrete wall obstructing our path. Two doors over six meters high occupied one side of the wall.
Amelia said, "We can leave the horses here, the girls will take care of them, but it is a long walk to town"
Able dismounted and said, "No, just a stroll and it's all down hill." A small door within the twin larger doors opened and four girls came out in uniform and two of them lead the horses away.
Amelia led us thru the door into a large courtyard paved in concrete. Walls ten meters high shielded all sides of the courtyard not protected by the sandstone formation in which the courtyard sat. Sand had drifted into the corners and a group of girls swept up and shoveled the sand to a small wagon they had with them. Amelia waved to them and led us to a passageway with an open roof that twisted and turned for the first 10 or 15 meters and we passed through heavy doors into the facility.
Amelia explained, "My office and the maps are in the old Administration Facility." she said. "Long before the Plague started, the Administration built this facility. It was started as a strategic reserve and they ended up building on to it until it could hold 40,000 people for a year."
Able and I gasped, 40.000 people was more than the population of Nor Cal from Redding all the way down to Bakersfield.
She led us to a staircase and said "It's up four floors." She said pointing up and starting up the stairs. Able and I followed and tried not to stumble in the dark. Oil lamps were placed sparingly along the walls but it was dim until we got to the fourth floor where the open door reveled hints of daylight as we reached it.
When Able and I got to the landing Amelia was halfway down a long hallway speaking to someone inside one of the sunlit rooms on the right. She laughed and looked to see us starting down the hall. She stopped smiling and waited for us.
When we got to her she said, "Leona is going to monitor, No one is allowed in the map room unmonitored." About that time a woman in her fifties came out and smiled, "I'm Leona," she said putting out her hand to Able. Able introduced himself and I then Leona led us to a door on the dark side of the hall she signed the logbook that hung beside the door and then went into the room. Amelia waited until light came on somehow and then we followed her in.
The room was 15 by 20 meters and held four large tables the one closest to the door was lit by very bright sunlight coming from a pipe in the ceiling and spread a sharp contrast to the rest of the room. I made out that above each table was a pipe but they were dark until Leona pulled a chain and the rear most pipe lit up some. She took a cart and went to the back of the room and opened one of the many shallow drawers in the wall, took out a map laying it carefully on the cart before bringing the cart and map to the sunlit table. Amelia was smiling at Able and I as we looked up the pipe and it was too bright to see anything, and looked at each other quizzically then at Amelia.
"Light Pipe," she said. "Each table in the Map room has a light pipe to illuminate the table. It only works in the daytime but it's free."
The map was a tracing of a general area map showing Burney in the center and the hills and valleys for 50 kilometers around or so. It had been traced in greater or lesser detail by successive artisans judging from the vintages of some of the inks used.
Amelia pointed out the fields we had seen today and the fields she thought might be good for diversion seed crops to the west and around the hill a bit. "We normally raise barley and rye out there. The deer eat a lot but the fields are terraced and we flood irrigate from this dam." She pointed out a small area of blue above the fields. "We also have been recycling our goat dropping out there and the soil is very rich. What do you think?"
"How many hectares are they all together?" I asked.
Amelia looked at Leona and Leona looked at me, "We ain't going to give up our barley fields for mule feed." Leona said evenly.
"I'm only looking for ten hectares as that's about all the seed I'll have after we do the fields in the east, "I said.
Leona became much more accommodating. "There are about fifty hectors in all the fields not counting roads and irrigation access. We fallow them in a three year rotation. But since the goat's drop more than they eat, I think we can plant oats in some of the fallow fields."
We discussed the soil conditions and the wagon roads that were yet to be built and I brought up planting alfalfa to divert the deer and elk. The strain of seed I brought was developed for Nevada and the conditions here were similar. They agreed to consider the idea.
The light pipe started to get dimmer, so Amelia and Leona made notes for me since I wasn't allowed to touch anything that might affect the maps. I finished with a list in Amelia's tight and precise hand on a whole sheet of paper. Most of which was blank. "I left you room for your calculations or notes later." Amelia said as she handed me the paper.
We left the map room after saying good-bye to Leona and went back down the dark stair well. Finally coming to the maze again. Amelia stopped and said, "I'll let you find your own way out from here, I'm on duty here tomorrow and have some meetings to attend."
I took the hint and let them lag behind me as I went in to the courtyard again and looked the walls. Every where I looked I saw what appeared to be bullet strikes. The walls were uniformly chipped and abraded from about a meter and a half down. Above that the walls were smooth and only creased here and there with chips and streaks.
I looked at where all that fire could have come from and in the slanting light made out gun slits all around the top of the walls. Five men with guns that automatically loaded could hold this courtyard as long as their ammunition held out and then there was still the maze and door to breach.
Able came out and seemed a little dejected. He was quiet as we passed through the door and started walking downhill all the way to the Kiva.
